In pandemic world, Shabbat Project goes home

The international Shabbat Project is homeward bound. Determined to carry on despite the COVID-19 pandemic, it will substitute thousands of in-person challah-bakes and other happenings with virtual events.

The seven-year-old campaign, widely celebrated on Long Island and in more than 1,600 cities and 106 countries, is distributing educational materials for an intimate home-based Shabbat experience this weekend.

Since 2013, the annual event, originated by South African Chief Rabbi Dr. Warren Goldstein, has brought together Jews of all ages and backgrounds to keep one Shabbat together. This year, given the altered circumstances, the Project reinvented itself, emphasizing the call to “Bring Shabbat Home.”

To encourage participation by irregularly observant Jews, the Project created educational resources, including a seven-step guide to observing Shabbat and inspiring ideas to read and share around the Shabbat table. Shabbat-observant Jews are urged to share this material with their less-observant friends.

Pre-Shabbat events around the world will include virtual challah bakes, online classes about Shabbat, cooking webcasts, global sing-a-thons, and virtual synagogue tours.

“We have lived through times of chaos and confusion, but our homes have been havens — and Shabbat can ensure they remain so,” said Rabbi Goldstein. “In a world turned upside down, Shabbat can keep us the right way up” and our homes “places of stability and security, kindness and connection, warmth and love.”

Visit theshabbosproject.org